Story Hour
Danny's April Showers
Written by Gene B. Williams
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March is said to “Come in like a lion, go out like a lamb.” This has to do with how the weather is often unpredictable as Winter becomes Spring. It’s as though Winter didn’t want to let go. April tends to be one of the most calm and peaceful months, at least for weather. Spring is happy to be here. Now it’s time to put the world back in order. Do a Spring cleaning. Set out the plants.
“April showers bring May flowers.”
In the April issue of Nicker’s Newsletter (have you subscribed yet, or did you miss out?) is a feature about planting seeds. Danny and Nicker have already started. With some help from his mother, Danny got out the pots, soil, seeds and other things.
Nicker … well, maybe he was still thinking of Easter? He got … a little confused.
Danny’s April Showers
“April showers bring May flowers,” said Danny.
Nicker looked at him, puzzled, and then grinned. “I remember. My Grandpa Gordie told us about it last Thanksgiving – but I didn’t know the first part. Now I know all of it.” He cleared his throat and said, “April showers bring Mayflowers, and Mayflowers bring the Pilgrims!”
Danny shook his head. “No, no, no. May FLOWERS, not Mayflowers.”
“That’s what I said,” said Nicker. “Mayflowers.”
Danny sighed. “May FLOWERS.”
“Yes,” said Nicker. “Mayflowers. But Grandpa told us that there was just one. It brought the Pilgrims to Pilgrim Rock.”
“That was Plymouth Rock. But, I wasn’t talking about boats or Pilgrims, Nicker.”
“I was,” said Nicker.
Danny sighed. Sometimes it’s hard to live with a sea dragon. Nicker would often have thoughts all his own. (If you missed the story about Grandpa Gordie and the Pilgrims, you can read it here. ) And once he got an idea, the direction it could take … well, sometimes it was like being caught in a maze mounted to a merry-go-wheel. Danny knew that trying to explain something to Nicker often just made things worse. So, he gave up trying explain
“Mom says I can grow some plants. We’ve picked out some seeds, and we have pots and planting soil. Have you ever planted anything, Nicker?”
“I planted some bird seed,” Nicker answered. There was a pause. “The next day the garden was full of birds pecking holes in the ground.”
“Nicker, you can’t grow birds from bird seed.”
“I did.”
Danny rolled his eyes a bit. “The birds were there to eat the seeds.”
Nicker got a stubborn face. “I planted bird seeds. I got birds. Then I put out more seeds and guess what. I got more birds. I didn’t even have to plant the seeds. I threw them on the ground and soon there were lots and lots of birds.”
“Nicker, don’t you understand? Birds grow from eggs, not from bird seed.”
“The more bird seed I put out, the more birds I got!” Nicker insisted.
“That’s not how you grow birds, Nicker.”
“That’s how I grow birds. Lots of them. The more bird seed I put out, the more birds I got – so that proves it!”
“Nicker ….”
“Sometimes I got too many birds. The whole yard gets full of birds. See? More bird seed, more birds.”
“Nicker, I’ll tell you again. Birds come from eggs. You don’t plant bird seed to get birds.”
“I do,” said Nicker. Then Nicker said, “I suppose you’re going to tell me that to grow birds you plant eggs.” Danny wanted to get to the job of planting the seeds he had. Nicker wasn’t ready to give up on his own line of thinking.
“Are we going to plant eggs?”
“No, we’re going to plant seeds.”
“Seeds to grow birds? Like I do?”
“No, we’re going to plant plants. My mother and I have done this before. She said it would be okay if I try it myself this time. “You can help if you want. It’s fun. In a week or so, we should have some nice plants growing.”
Nicker whispered to himself, “It only took me a day to grow birds.”
Danny ignored this. Then, as his mother had taught him, Danny spread the newspaper in a flat pan, got the set of pots, bag of soil and the small shovel. Each of the pots had a label.
Carrots
Radish
Marigold
Squash
Sunflower
The packages of seeds also had labels, and pictures to help. Danny sure hoped his plants would look as good. He filled each pot until all ten had the right amount of soil. He was very careful to not make a mess so his mother would let him do more planting. Nicker … helped? … by wanting to sniff each pot, and each seed.
“I want to plant something, too,” Nicker insisted.
Danny set a pot aside for Nicker.
“No, no, no, I need a bigger pot.”
Danny brought a bigger pot.
“Bigger,” said Nicker.
Danny brought a bigger pot.
“BIGGER!” said Nicker.
Danny got the biggest pot. He was sure glad he’d spread out the newspaper first. He was as careful as he could be as he put dirt into the pot. With Nicker’s … help? … it was quite a mess. Nicker had his nose into the pot to … help? … tamp it down properly. At last Nicker seemed happy, and was humming a happy song.
Suddenly he said, “Oh, I almost forgot” and scooted out the door.
Danny went back to his own job. He selected the correct seeds for the correct pots. With his finger, he made tiny holes in the dirt, put in a seed (or several seeds, depending on the kind of plant). With the seed in place, Danny covered it over. Then he got the watering can his mother had given him and poured in what he hoped was just the right amount of water.
All this time Nicker was coming in and out. He’d been very busy with his planting pot while Danny was getting his own pots planted. Now it was time to see what Nicker had been up to.
“I’m ready,” Nicker said, with dirt all over his nose, and a basket of colored eggs left over from Easter. The dirty pot on the messy counter had a large hole poked in the middle of the dirt. The hole looked a lot like the nose of a sea dragon. All around it was a strange and thick mulch of twigs and grass.
“Ready for what?” asked Danny with a puzzled look.
“I’m ready to do what you told me. I have the pot ready and the dirt ready. Now where’s the egg you want me to plant so I can grow a bird?” He pointed to the basket of eggs dyed all sorts of colors. “I want a blue egg,” he said, “so I can grow a bluebird.”
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